Happy Mother’s Day

Jeanne Emerson It being Friday afternoon and almost Shabbat, I'm leaving a brief Mother's Day greeting now.  First, to say thank you to my kids for letting me be their mom and being such wonderful sons.  Then to my husband for being my partner in crime.

But I also need to talk about my own mother, whose standards were high, whose generosity to others was boundless and who had a huge influence on so many.  She was an art teacher – elementary school – and not a kid in our community would have been inside a museum if my mom hadn't taken them.  Since she grew up in the Depression and World War II, she was very much part of the Greatest Generation – in every way.

She treated everyone like someone worth meeting, and listening to, and people knew it.  All my friends wrote to me when she died with some personal remembrance.  I lost her when both boys were in college, and I remember thinking so many times how much I would have loved to be able to ask her about having adult kids.  How was she able to stay out of the middle of our lives when she had such a strong opinion about how we should be living them?  Why did she let me hang around with the high school bad boys – even let them sleep in our basement when they were fighting with their parents, without worrying what influence they might have had over us?  How did she feel as we got married?  Was she as nervous as I am now?

I do know though that, whatever her answers would be, and despite some daughterly issues, her faith in us, her encouragement, her belief that we needed careers and missions of our own all empowered us to become the women we are.  She was very private and there are many things I wish I knew, and others I wish I could have told her, but they were not the center of things – just things.

She was a great mom.  I miss her.  And I'm so grateful that I do.

Norman Lear Reminds Us Why We Love Music (and Why We’re Right)

 

Leave it to Norman Lear, founder and early funder of People for the American Way and creator of All in the Family and Maude, two of the most successful sitcoms in American television history, to produce the remarkable Playing for Change.  Musicians – street musicians, from all over the world, recorded and filmed separately and combined into a multi-national, multi-ethnic concert, recorded (with high-tech equipment) on city street corners and the red dirt of townships, Congo, New Orleans and right in front of the White House.
The message, as Lear freely admits "sounds like claptrap" but somehow it can't help but sink in: music, the universal language, reminds us how much we have in common across the barriers that separate nation and race, faith and gender. It won't change anything by itself, certainly, but it's a lovely reminder of what could be.

Blogging Boomers #114: From Travel to Dictators to Shoes!

Logo There's plenty worth checking out in this week's Blogging Boomers, and not only because it's living at the blog of one of my favorite women, boomer or otherwise, Janet Wendy Spiegel at GenPlus.  There's of travel, from road trips to Key West to Berlin, there's a review of a book about Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and some deep thoughts about cool shoes.  Nobody ever accused boomers of being homogeneous, after all.  Visit GenPlus and you'll agree.

Support for Obama Among Jewish (and Other) Religious Voters is High

Obama hebrew button large Wow.  One of my twitter feeds just posted this link:  Jews Unwavering in Support for Obama.  It's a Jerusalem Post story but citing a Gallup poll, reputable and usually more conservative than other top-level pollsters.

Here are the numbers:

Approval through Obama's first 100 days in office

79% of Jews voted for Obama

79% of Jews

85% of Muslims
73% of nonreligious
96% of liberal Jews

77% of “moderate” Jews

45% of conservative Jews w/exactly 45% disapproving

CHRISTIANS:

67% of Catholics favored Obama

58% of Protestants

45% of Mormons

And here's Gallup's graphic of the entire breakdown:
Gallup graph

Definitely interesting.

RERUN – A GREAT REPUBLICAN: Farewell to Jack Kemp, a Fine Gentleman

Jack Kemp foodball

This good looking guy, football star of the early 60’s, is Jack Kemp – congressman, vice-presidential and presidential candidate and a fine man.  He died of cancer Saturday at 73, universally respected and, by many, loved.   If you read this blog you know that I’m anything but a conservative, so this isn’t a political meditation; it’s an appreciation of a good guy.

When I think of Kemp, whom I met several times during his various campaigns, I see the same picture.  It’s Inauguration Weekend for the first George Bush, and there’s a huge youth rally at the National Armory in Washington.  I’m there for the Today Show, filming the teenagers practically hanging from the rafters, excited and waiting for the speakers to show up.

There are lots of them, holding forth in various ways about the new administration and all it would do.  Finally, Kemp, the soon-to-be Secretary of HUD, Housing and Urban Development, arrived, and gave a sweet, unpretentious talk.  Then, football hero that he was, he knew how to handle this young and happy crowd.  Producing a football, he drew his arm back, ball in hand, and threw the ball far into the crowd, to enormous applause.  It was wonderful.

After his years in the Bush Administration, he continued to act on his values: the need for extra opportunity for those held behind, and for justice.  In the years of fierce immigration battles in the 90’s, he opposed California’s cruel anti-immigration Proposition 187, jeopardizing his own political future, and took strong positions on the concept of opportunity for those whose futures seemed bleak.  Kemp was an economic conservative and all that that entailed, and also a caring, committed American.  He proved it’s possible to be both.  I’ve always admired him, and I wanted to say so, and wish him Godspeed.  The is a portion of a (long) letter to his (17) grandchildren shortly after the 2008 election:

My first thought last week upon learning that a 47-year-old African-American Democrat had won the presidency was, “Is this a great country or not?”

You may have expected your grandfather to be disappointed that his friend John McCain lost (and I was), but there’s a difference between disappointment over a lost election and the historical perspective of a monumental event in the life of our nation.

Let me explain. First of all, the election was free, fair and transformational, in terms of our democracy and given the history of race relations in our nation.

What do I mean?

Just think, a little over 40 years ago, blacks in America had trouble even voting in our country, much less thinking about running for the highest office in the land.

A little over 40 years ago, in some parts of America, blacks couldn’t eat, sleep or even get a drink of water using facilities available to everyone else in the public sphere.

We are celebrating, this year, the 40th anniversary of our Fair Housing Laws, which helped put an end to the blatant racism and prejudice against blacks in rental housing and homeownership opportunities.

As an old professional football quarterback, in my days there were no black coaches, no black quarterbacks, and certainly no blacks in the front offices of football and other professional sports. For the record, there were great black quarterbacks and coaches — they just weren’t given the opportunity to showcase their talent. And pro-football (and America) was the worse off for it.

I remember quarterbacking the old San Diego Chargers and playing for the AFL championship in Houston. My father sat on the 50-yard line, while my co-captain’s father, who happened to be black, had to sit in a small, roped-off section of the end zone. Today, we can’t imagine the NFL without the amazing contributions of blacks at every level of this great enterprise.

I could go on and on, but just imagine that in the face of all these indignities and deprivations, Dr. Martin Luther King could say 44 years ago, “I have an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in mankind.” He described his vision for America, even as he and his people were being denied their God-given human rights guaranteed under our Constitution.

You see, real leadership is not just seeing the realities of what we are temporarily faced with, but seeing the possibilities and potential that can be realized by lifting up peoples’ vision of what they can be.

When President-elect Obama quoted Abraham Lincoln on the night of his election, he was acknowledging the transcendent qualities of vision and leadership that are always present, but often overlooked and neglected by pettiness, partisanship and petulance. . . .

My advice for you all is to understand that unity for our nation doesn’t require uniformity or unanimity; it does require putting the good of our people ahead of what’s good for mere political or personal advantage.

Kemp was a fierce economic conservative.  AND a true believer in the promise of our country.  There is no Republican candidate who offers that kind of moral, ethical and political leadership today.  We could really use him.

 

The End of the Berlin Wall: Twenty Years Ago

Brandeberg Gate This is the Brandenburg Gate in the center of Berlin. The first time I saw it, in 1974, there was a wall built right through it. 

Gate with wall Here's a photo of it then, from the Hotel Adlon website.  The hotel stood, from 1907 to 1945, when it was decimated by a fire, just to the left of the Gate.  It was the stopping place for world leaders and socialites and was rebuilt shortly after the Wall fell. 

Because Berlin has such a dramatic history, it was always exciting to be there — maybe more so while the wall remained.

180px-Checkpoint_Charlie_1977  I remember especially coming through Checkpoint Charlie (that's it on the left) on a dark fall day (Americans were allowed to visit for the day after going through this scary border station and having cars and packages searched) and, as we approached the Gate, seeing an old man standing, looking over into the West.  In his hands, clasped behind his back, was a rosary.  Not so popular in communist East Berlin.  I recall thinking immediately "Oh.  His daughter is getting married in the West today and he can't go, and he's standing there, thinking about her, praying for her."  Berlin in those times lent itself to imagining such things.  The drama was palpable.

The first time we went to Berlin after the wall fell, I remember, it was pouring.   Oblivious to the weather, we walked back and forth beneath the lovely arches in the now-open gate, kind of giddy at what it meant to the people of Berlin and all those who care about freedom and, I guess, redemption.  For despite what happened in Berlin during the war (and we've studied it extensively and spoken both with survivors and those involved in the rebuilding of the Jewish community) the Wall caused immeasurable suffering and was a diabolical slash through the heart of the city and every one of its people.

I've written about Berlin before: from its playgrounds to its grim Communist years.  We go there often.  It seems to pull us back, its intellectual energy and re-emerging Jewish community irresistible. Once, when we'd taken our kids there while the Wall remained, one son, around 5, bought a stuffed wool pig and told everyone he "got it out of jail."    

Berlin repairs Here's one last photo – of two buildings: one redone and the other still old and rickety, in the very cool neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, which is in the old "East Berlin" and now, last I heard, had the highest childbirth rate in Germany and was home to artists, writers, musicians and fashionably cool people who don't have to work.  What you see stands for it all:  the struggle to renew, still only partly complete.

The First Hundred Days and the Opposition Has Been Busy (Boy Are We Glad to See Senator Spector Over Here!)

Happy 100th day to the president. It's probably the toughest presidency on record, given the scope of challenges he faces: depression, disintegrating infrastructure, inadequate schools and devastated health care system and now, a plague (well sort of.)  But you know all that.  What you may not have noticed is that all those Republicans despite their "What?  Who?  Me?" have been very busy making things harder.  I have to thank the great Nerdette, always ahead of the pack, for pointing out the evidence, below.

I Owe a Real Post But I Saw These Violets and Dandilions

Violets and Dandilions CroppedI went for a walk this morning – three miles in Rock Creek Park.  It was lovely — the creek still and reflecting the sun, shadows and wildflowers.  But these, they weren't even in the park.  They were along the side of the road as I walked up the street, back to my house.  That's what spring does – leaves us treasures when we're not even looking, adding beauty to the plainest of journeys. Aren't we lucky?

GreeblepixEntryBadge-783548 OH – and I just entered this photo contest.  Just because I love violets.